Feb. 14--DOHA, Qatar -- As the Sri Lanka government says it is close to defeating Tamil Tiger rebels there has been increasing criticism of the control over both international and local media in reporting the conflict. The Listening Post's Richard Gizbert reports.

It is now a familiar storyline. As government forces move against groups they call terrorists they subsequently block local and global media out of the war zone citing so-called security reasons.

The Sri Lankan government is tightening its grip on northern strongholds long held by the Tamil Tiger rebel movement while the media is being subjected to censorship, intimidation and news blackouts.

The head of Sri Lanka's state funded broadcaster has called on the media to "restore peace and harmony".

The stakes are high. A leading editor of an opposition paper has recently been murdered, and international news channels find themselves threatened with expulsion from the island unless they play by what they are told are the rules.

Sri Lanka has been in a near constant state of civil war since 1983. But the story is more difficult to cover now than ever.

"I started covering the Sri Lankan war in 1992 when I had tremendous access," says Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley.

"I was allowed to go into prisons and film Tamil prisoners. I interviewed the Army Chief of Staff, I was allowed to go on the Tamil Tiger side. That has changed, we are restricted."

Intimidation

Indeed the media are not just restricted, they have also been explicitly threatened.

International news networks, including Al Jazeera, BBC and CNN have all been put on notice by the Sri Lankan government.

The country's defence minister, Gotobaya Rajapaksa, warned the networks that they would be removed if their reporting gave the Tamil rebels what he referred to as "a second breath of life".

That warning was issued days after Rajapaksa, in an interview with the BBC, drew parallels with former US president George Bush by labelling the conflict as a strict dichotomy.

"Two groups," he said. "Either you are terrorists or either you are a person who is fighting the terrorists."

Rajiva Wijesinha, the minister for human rights and disaster management, reinforced this mentality.

"Now I may not want to be compared to George Bush," he says.